PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Sone: Yuji | Australia

Research Writing and Art Performance: A pragmatic approach in the Australian academic environment

Yuji Sone (University of New South Wales, Australia)

This paper examines the current situation for practice-based doctoral research degrees in theatre/performance studies in Australia, focusing on assessment of course outcomes. 

There has been a growing number of Australian universities that allow doctoral degrees to incorporate creative art works, such as visual art exhibitions or music composition, as non-text-based research outcomes. As a new form of doctoral degree, the practice-based doctoral course in Australia, however, has not yet earned academic legitimacy, largely due to the ambiguity of its nature and purposes, and hence its academic status. There are noticeable differences between schools and faculties over the nature, course of study, thesis format and examination procedure of their practice-based doctoral research courses offered in Australian universities. The lack of agreement between universities on an appropriate assessment process is an area of contestation that complicates the acceptance of practice-based doctoral degrees as a legitimate mode of academic research, especially for theatre/performance studies based within the traditional parameters of the humanities and social sciences.

The introduction of practice-based doctoral research in the area of theatre/performance studies is a relatively new phenomenon, and by no means universally recognised in the Australian university system. While the art schools and newly established faculties that sit across traditional areas, such as Faculty of Creative Industries, are more likely to accept creative art performance projects as a component of doctoral work, most of the theatre/performance studies within humanities faculties exclude assessment performance work. The core ambiguity of practice-based work for theatre/performance studies within the humanities theatre/performance studies is what constitutes ‘the work’ under examination. The majority of those who offer practice-based doctoral degrees seem to adapt the thesis structure that consists of a combination of writing and artwork. While advocates of practice-based doctoral degree tend to argue for ‘performance as research’ where artwork alone can be regarded as legitimate academic research, there seems to be, however, little discussion on how the writing/artwork combined approach is tailored for the assessments of practice-based doctorates in theatre/performance in Australian universities.

Fundamental to the discussion of the writing/artwork thesis is the question of how a written component relates to artwork. This paper examines types of combined thesis structure and the functions of written text relating to artwork. A combination of the theory/practice nexus in theatre/performance studies is the ‘pragmatic approach’, which allows the establishment of ‘practice as research in performance’ as an academic discipline within an existing humanities and social sciences framework in Australian universities, while still maintaining a practice-based methodology.

In closing, I would like to nuance the pragmatic approach by exploring a way in which theory and practice can relate to each other in a model of mutuality.